CFTO-DT
This article is not to be confused with the real-life CFTO-DT, a real-life CTV owned-and-operated station also serving Toronto, Ontario. CFTO-DT, VHF channel 7 and virtual channel 9, is an NBC owned-and-operated television station located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The station is owned by NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations subsidiary of NBCUniversal. CFTO maintains studio facilities located at 9 Channel Nine Court in Agincourt (near the junction of Highway 401 and McCowan Road in the suburb of Scarborough), and its transmitter facilities are located atop the CN Tower in downtown Toronto. History Early Years The station first signed on the air on October 8, 1952 as CNBT, making channel 9 one of Toronto's oldest television stations. CNBT initially broadcast a minimum of two hours of programming per day. The station's original studio and transmitter facilities were located at 1550 McCowan Road. The station quickly installed equipment to produce and transmit its programming in colour in late 1953; CNBT's first notable colour telecast occurred in January 1954, when the station broadcast NBC's telecast of the Rose Bowl parade in the format. On June 15, 1956, CNBT became the first television station in Canada to broadcast all of its programming in colour, an event described by the June 16, 1956 Toronto Star as "a daring breakthrough the black-and-white curtain", completing a project that cost more than $1.25 million to make the upgrades. Reborn as CFTO On August 31, 1964, NBC changed the station's calls to CFTO-TV. On May 31, 1976, CFTO began transmitting its signal from the CN Tower, while its studios remained in Agincourt. Ratings for CFTO-TV's newscasts overtook those of CHBT in the 1980s, but the station could not dethrone market leader CFDQ during the period. In 1987, CFTO-TV became the first station in the Greater Toronto Area to adopt its real-time closed captioning for the hearing impaired in all of its newscasts; 7 years later in 1994, the closed captioning service was later added to the station's morning newscast. In 1995, CFTO-TV changed its on-air branding from "Channel 9" to "NBC 9 Toronto" (although the street on which the Agincourt studio complex is located was not renamed and retained the Channel 9 name); additionally, became the first station in Toronto to launched its website, which provided news reports and information on the station's community initiatives and on-air staff members; the station expanded its Internet offerings in 2000, when they branded it as "Peacock Club". For most of its years, The station did include the network's logo next to theirs, branding solely with the channel number and/or call letters vocally and visually (outside of network-created radio promos which listed the station as "NBC Channel 9" or "NBC Channel 9 Toronto") until 1995. The station is among the few in Canada which has their logo in a transparent bug with time and temperature at all times, including NBC network, syndicated and news programming, though not during commercial breaks or paid programming. Present In November 2007, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) proposed a $10,000 fine against CFTO-TV for "failure to publicize the existence and location of its children's television programming reports" because the station did not keep adequate records on commercial limits in children's TV programs. In the fall of 2008, CFTO-TV's website was relaunched including a new layout as part of a larger revamp of the websites of NBC's entire O&O station group. On January 18, 2011, the CRTC and the United States FCC and Department of Justice approves the acquisition of station's parent company NBCUniversal by Comcast with the deal closes on January 28, in addition, the branding was shorten to "NBC Toronto" during the short period, which is applied only during mentions in some news reports, network and syndication program promotions and public service announcements, however they continued to use the "NBC 9" branding in news opens; later in February 2012, after a year to used the "NBC Toronto" branding, they reverted to its old "NBC 9" branding full-time. In January 2012, after 12 years of using the gold "9" logo, the new logo was officially introduced in some promos and in print ads, but the new-current logo made its on-air debut on February 28, 2012, coinciding with the new graphics and set. In December 2009, the Toronto local of the Canadian Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-Communication Workers Canada has launched a boycott of CFTO-TV, despite the 20 CABET members at the station had ceased to be part of the union and were technically reclassified as station management, exempt from union jurisdiction, while the 46 CABET members where remained at the station, the station spokeswoman told a Toronto Star reporter that they did not comment about the labour-related issues that hitting the station. Prior to the boycott of the station, In October 1994, the union has joint forces to boycott CFTO-TV due to its negotiations involving its national contract with the network; and in the Summer of 1987, a handful of technicians at CFTO-TV went on strike due to the North American-wide strike of the network; technicians at other NBC-owned stations was also went on strike as a result. In February 2015, CFTO and the other NBC-owned stations offered live, web-based streaming of programming to subscribers of participating cable and satellite television providers, as provided through the TV Everywhere Mobile Apps. A month later, in March 2015, CFTO-TV along with sister NBC stations went live on Sony's internet television service PlayStation Vue as part of its Access package, the other NBC O&Os as well as NBC affiliate WGID in Detroit was also added to PS Vue's access package in the summer and fall of 2016. Website history *nbc9.ca (1995-2009) *nbctoronto.ca (2009-present) Cable and Satellite Carriage Disputes Bell Satellite TV and Bell Fibe On March 15, 2016, NBCUniversal pulled the signals of CFTO-DT along with co-owned cable channels from Bell Satellite TV and Bell Fibe systems in Greater Toronto Area due to a dispute between NBC and Bell in which Bell claimed that NBCUniversal demanded to renew its carriage of NBC-owned stations in Canada including those removed due to the dispute. Three days later on March 18, 2016, the company announced it will continue to carry CFTO-DT and other cable channels for another 10 days while seeking arbitration from the CRTC. Cogeco On December 31, 2016, 10 months following the NBC-Bell dispute, NBCUniversal's parent company Comcast announced that they will blackout the signals of CFTO-DT from Cogeco cable systems in neighbouring Peterborough. It will be the first dispute with that provider in 15 years. The dispute involves NBC owned-and-operated stations (including CFTO-DT) in and next to Cogeco territories and the other NBCU-owned cable channels. On the same day, the cable company announces that they continue to watch CFTO-DT and other NBCU-owned cable channels. The companies’ negotiations over a carriage deal to replace the one that expires on said date have been extended after midnight. Digital television Digital channel CFTO-DT also maintains a Mobile DTV feed of digital subchannel 9.2 (labelled "NBCMobile"), which broadcasts at 1.83 Mbit/s. On January 1, 2012, Universal Sports transitioned into a cable- and satellite-exclusive service, causing its affiliates (such as CFTO) to replace the network and remove the channel from their digital signals entirely. Analogue-to-digital conversion On January 30, 2004, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) granted CFTO-TV permission to broadcast a digital signal on VHF channel 7. CFTO-TV shut down its analogue signal, over VHF channel 9, on August 31, 2011, the official date in which Canadian television stations in CRTC-designated mandatory markets transitioned from analogue to digital broadcasts. The station's digital signal continued to broadcasts on its pre-transition VHF channel 7. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analogue channel 9. Gallery Logo history CNBTLogo.jpg|1952-64 CFTO1964Logo.jpg|1964-69 CFTO1969Logo.png|1969-76 CFTO1976Logo.png|1976-79 CFTO1979Logo.jpg|1979-85 CFTO1985Logo.png|1985-86 CFTO1986Logo.png|1986-92 CFTO1992Logo.png|1992-95 CFTO1995Logo.png|1995-2001 Programming As typical for a network-owned station, CFTO-DT generally carries the vast majority of the NBC network schedule. However, the station does not clear the entirety of NBC's weekday overnight lineup (pre-empting the network's rebroadcasts of the fourth hour of Today and CNBC's Mad Money), and airs The More You Know block on a one-hour delay due to the 10:00 a.m. hour of its Saturday morning newscast (which bookends the Saturday edition of Today), resulting in the final two hours of the block being shifted to Sundays whenever network sports telecasts are scheduled on Saturdays during the 12:00 p.m. hour in order to meet CRTC educational programming quotas. Syndicated programming broadcast by CFTO-DT (as of September 2016) include Access Hollywood (including its live counterpart) (which is distributed by corporate sister NBCUniversal Television Distribution), Steve Harvey (also distributed by NBCUniversal Television Distribution), and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. With this (in part, due to its weekday schedule being heavy on locally produced and NBC network programs), CFTO-DT has one of the lowest amount of syndicated programming among the Toronto market's television stations. Station oddities *For many years, CFTO-DT carried Days of Our Lives at 1:00 p.m., NBC's default timeslot for the program; on September 8, 2014, the soap opera was moved one hour early to noon and aired on a one-day delay after the station's midday newscast moved to 11:00 a.m. on that date. *CFTO-DT was one of several NBC owned-and-operated stations that does not carry Access Hollywood Live. The talk show spin-off of Access Hollywood aired from the program's NBC O&O debut in September 2010 until September 2014, when CFTO and the other aforementioned O&Os dropped the program due to low local viewership in those markets. On September 6, 2016, Access Hollywood Live returned to CFTO-DT and the other aforementioned NBC-owned stations following the cancellation of The Meredith Vieira Show which is aired on that timeslot. *From its program's NBC O&O debut in September 1994, CFTO-DT is one of several NBC owned-and-operated stations that carry the newsmagazine program Extra. Extra's traditional 4:00 p.m. timeslot was occupied on Channel 9 by ''Hard Copy'' from September 1991 to September 1996; the program had aired on that timeslot from September 1996 until September 2, 2016. On September 5, 2016, Extra moved from CFTO-DT to Fox owned-and-operated station CFLD-DT (channel 31), leaving CFTO as one of the few NBC-owned stations that is not carrying the program. *For many years, CFTO and Radio-Canada owned-and-operated station CBFG (channel 10) aired a Canadian National Exhibition preview special every Second Week of August until 2015 when the CNE Preview Special moved to CTV-owned station CFDQ, while the French-language version remained on CBFG. *On September 17, 2015, CFTO-DT and the City of Toronto announced a partnership to broadcast the city's New Year's Eve celebrations. The Inaugural event was held on December 31, 2015 to welcome in 2016. It became the highest-rated New Year's Eve television event with a 12.2 household rating and an 11.2 and a 14.7 rating among 25-54s. On September 1, 2016, the event will returned to welcome in 2017, and was held on December 31, 2016. That edition was the second-rated New Year's Eve event with 335,911 households and a 9.7 rating and 25 share, but they lost to CBC owned-and-operated CKJ's "Toronto Countdown to 2017" with 425,949 households and a 12.3 rating and 31 share. Because of its commitments to air the event, the station has had to reschedule The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Sports programming CFTO-TV served as the "Official Toronto home" of the nearby National Football League's Buffalo Bills until the loss of NBC's rights to the American Football Conference (of which the Bills are members of) in 1998. NFL telecasts returned to CFTO-TV in 2006 and even then only through NBC Sports-produced NBC Sunday Night Football game telecasts and from the 2016 season onward simulcasts of the last several games of NFL Network's Thursday Night Football package (the first several games are simulcast on CBS-owned station CHBT, CHBT and CFTO-DT simulcast the games through CBS and NBC's joint rights to the package it shares with NFL Network). From 2001 to 2002 and again since 2008, CFTO has served as an official broadcaster of the Toronto Marathon; because of its commitments to air the event, the station has had to reschedule NBC News programs pre-empted or delayed by the telecast of the marathon. From 2002 to 2008, CFTO served as the official sponsor of the Toronto Maple Leafs; the station displayed its in-rink advertisements during all of the NHL franchise's home games held at the Air Canada Centre, until NBC reestablished its relationship with the NHL in 2005. CFTO occasionally runs special editions of its newscasts or its highlight program Sports Sunday to cover Leafs games that are broadcast nationally by NBC. News operation CFTO-DT presently broadcasts 41 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 6½ hours on weekdays, 4 hours on Saturdays and 4½ hours on Sundays); in addition, the station produces the half-hour sports highlight program Sports Sunday, which airs Sunday evenings after the 11:00 p.m. newscast. Until 1991 The station gained notice in the market during the 1960s for its local newscasts, anchored by Matt Powell, Al Holt, Joel Mason and Tracey Howell, with weatherman Woodrow Ward (later of CFDQ, CKJ, CHBT, WTVB, CKQA and CFLD), sports reporter Greg Reid, and commentator Jon Mann. In 1975, Joy Haynes briefly served as co-anchor of the station's 11:00 p.m. newscast with Powell. Lora Jensen joined CFTO-TV in 1978; Mathew Mitchell followed suit three years later. Mitchell and Ella Rios co-anchored the station's hour-long 5:30 p.m. newscast during the 1980s, and Mitchell and Jensen co-anchored CFTO-TV's 11:00 p.m. newscast until they both resigned within three weeks of each other in May 1997. Alyssa Murphy has been the station's main anchor since 1990. From 1997 to 2009, she was teamed with Emilio Ford at 11 p.m., and the two were the longest-serving anchor team in Toronto television history. Political editor Dean Parks has been at the station from 1968 to 2006. In 1975, the station renamed its local newscasts from NewsNine to NewsCentre 9; this is a Canadianization of the NewsCenter brand that comes after some other NBC-owned stations, including those in New York City and Los Angeles, adopting the NewsCenter name in 1974. The moniker remained until 1983, when the newscasts were renamed Channel 9 News. In 1989, CFTO-TV became the first station in Toronto to go on the 24-hour round-the-clock news operation; later on September 6, 1990, CFTO began airing 25-second news briefs, the station's news briefs – which CFTO emphasizes in the slogan it adopted, "Your 24-Hour News Source"; the news briefs were later discontinued in January 1992, while the "24-Hour News Source" slogan remained in use until 1993. In 1990, CFTO-TV became the first station in Toronto to start its hour-long local morning newscast entitled Before You Go This Morning (now NBC 9 News Today) while other Toronto stations began their local morning newscasts during the 1990s. Two years later, in 1992, the station added 1 hour-long and 1 half-hour Saturday morning and 2 half-hour Sunday morning newscasts, becoming the first station in Toronto to expand its morning newscasts to Weekends. In January 1991, CFTO announced plans to launch the "Metropolitan News Source", a 24-hour local cable news channel featuring 4½-minute-long inserts featuring news headlines specific to each town placed within live simulcasts of the station's noon, 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. newscasts. Originally scheduled to debut on January 14, 1991, the service was to be distributed to Rogers Cable systems in then City of North York, Oshawa/Whitby, Cambridge and Newmarket; however, the service's launch was postponed three times due to logistical issues and demands by cable providers to gain a share of the service's advertising revenues. Station management scrapped plans for the channel in June 1991. 1990s In July 1992, NBC commissioned 615 Music to compose the theme NewsWire, a theme package that was quickly picked up by the other NBC affiliates. On September 11, 1995, before the station rebranded itself as "NBC 9 Toronto", the station expanded its already 90 minute long 5:00 p.m. newscast one hour earlier to 4:00 p.m. and Murphy replaces Ford alongside Eva Schmidt, but the 4:00 p.m. hour of the news later cancelled on October 13, 1995 due to extreme low ratings. On the same day, former WJBV anchor Charlene Reeves replaced Murphy on the morning newscasts alongside Alfredo Barker. In May 1997, a big turmoil in the news operation of the station leads by adding The Red Green Show actor and Toronto radio DJ Jeff Lumby as a commentator, the commentary segment was entitled "A Different Point of View" which is last for only 3 commentaries, Jensen resigns after 30 years with the station on May 1, Murphy was temporary promoted to an 11:00 p.m. anchor the next day before became the permanent anchor for the late newscast on May 16; Mitchell was also resign after 15 years on May 21, Ford was hired as 5:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. co-anchor permanently a day later. Archie Guzman was later promoted to become the anchor of their 5:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. newscasts alongside Eva Schmidt and Murphy on May 19, Schmidt remained as 6:00 p.m. anchor in the wake of the anchor changes at the station. prior to the announcement of the anchor changes, the station is putting the ad in Toronto's major metropolitan newspapers including Toronto Star entitled "NBC9's Commitment to Toronto" which focusing on the anchor changes and the fairest, most accurate and balanced news covererage in Toronto. On June 9, 1997, the station dumped its longtime Channel 9/NBC 9 News branding and the Newswire theme in favor of the new music package and the branding NewsChannel 9; it remained for short use until 1998. In August 1998, the news branding was later renamed NBC 9 Toronto News to focus on the "NBC 9 Toronto" branding; the news branding was used only for three years; later in 1999, they dropped its 1997 music package and they began using 615 Music's Battery package, which lasted for a year until 2000. In January 1998, the station hired former WSBB anchor Roberta Boone as general assignment reporter and Weekend evening Anchor; 8 months later after its promotion, she replaces Murphy on the early evening newscasts with Guzman. On August 24, 1998, CFTO debuted its one-hour daily lifestyle and entertainment show NBC 9 Toronto Daytime hosted by Murphy and Olive Clarke alongside meteorologist Marlon Walsh, but later on April 26, 1999, the show is reduced to a half-hour. On April 23, 1999, Eva Schmidt quits CFTO after 10 years; Murphy was officially promoted to anchor the 6:00 p.m. newscast two days later. On September 9, 1998, a technical glitch involving a circuit breaker for portions of the main newsroom control room caused a power failure 15 minutes into the 11:00 p.m. newscast; startled anchors Emilio Ford and Alyssa Murphy, along with meteorologist Mark Nash and sports anchor Victor Russell, were scrambled to the station's "weather centre" just to the right of the main news desk due to the power failure. In the Spring of 1999, after negotiations between CFTO-TV management and the Canadian Federation of Television and Radio Artists (CFTRA), all of the station's on-air talent, except for 4 on-air talent, could go on strike. On March 30, 1999, the station's on-air talent plans authorizing a strike vote if a bargaining session with the station in late April failed. Later, on May 14, 1999, four of the station's high-profile personalities including 6:00 & 11:00 p.m. anchor Alyssa Murphy, chief meteorologist Mark Nash, sports anchor Kevin Lawson and Weekend evening meteorogist Jeannette King had broken ranks with the union following the strike authorization vote. 2000s In 2001, the station replaced the Battery package with a new news music package, also produced by 615 Music, called The Tower, which has remained in use by CFTO-TV until February 2012; in addition, the new logo was introduced, by moving the peacock logo to the left of the "9" logo, and also its newscast brand "NBC 9 News" was reintroduced; the move was part of a standard branding effort imposed by NBC across its owned-and-operated stations which saw the incorporation of the NBC name into their local brands (most of the other NBC O&Os retained their existing news branding which retained their NewsChannel, Channel (number) News or News (number) identities). From 2001 to 2003, a set of shake-ups that hitting the station's morning newscast, In August 2001, Walsh and Weekend morning meteorologist Floyd Hill has traded to a Weekday Morning meteologist before Walsh left the station for the first time; Morning co-anchor Barker demoted from the morning newscast in September 2002, the station hires Lynn Martinez as morning anchor after his 20-year work at rival CFDQ, while the station also hires Lindsey Gross for the first time, she was anchored the 12:00 p.m. newscast with Barker, while Clarke remains the morning co-anchor with Martinez. Traffic reporter Todd Black left the station after 7 years in March 2002, Andrea Yates replaces Black in November, and in 2003, Marjorie Simmons was hired by the station as a co-anchor following the promotion of Clarke as the afternoon co-anchor. In 2003, Health Reporter Olive Clarke was promoted to anchor the 5:30 p.m. newscasts with Boone following the departure of Guzman as co-anchor, making Toronto one of the few large markets with two female anchors on an evening newscast. Also, the station hires Ronald Hayes as reporter and co-anchor of the 6:00 p.m. newscast with Guzman. It was long for 3 years as Clarke was displaced from the afternoon newscast and Hayes left from the early evening newscast because of changes in the station's early evening news lineup that went into effect on September 18, 2006. In 2005, CFTO hired Jeff Hale for the second time; he was anchored alongside Jean Mathis during the Weekend evening newscasts, but a year after his rehiring, Jeff was later promoted to anchor the early evening newscasts alongside Boone and Jean later solo-anchored the Weekend evening newscasts. In early fall 2006, additional changes were brought to CFTO's early-evening lineup. On September 18, the station replaced the 5:30 p.m. half-hour with the the newsmagazine show Extra. A week later on September 25, 2006, Ford and Murphy were promoted as anchors of the 6:00 p.m. newscasts. In November 2006, CFTO-TV announced that its half-hour 12:00 p.m. newscast would be replaced in December by a one-hour daily lifestyle and entertainment show entitled iVillage Live. After the change, CFTO-TV with only four hours per day of local news, had the shortest airtime devoted to local news of any major network station. CFTO altered its 5:00-6:00 p.m. hour on January 15, 2007, swapping the half-hour news at 5:00 with Extra. On the same day, CFTO-TV debuted the new weekday morning show called Barely Today which is hosted by Wilson Miller, who was the former weekday morning traffic/sports anchor for CFTO. The show was later canceled on June 6, 2007. A day later on June 7, 2007, CFTO-TV became the first station in Toronto to start its morning newscast at 4:30 a.m.; the new half-hour expansion is later spread to other Toronto stations in 2010. In Fall of 2007, Simmons and Gross was trading places in the morning newscasts; Gross is now Weekday morning anchor with Martinez, while Simmons is now a Weekend Morning co-anchor with Bill Ramos. In March 2008, Martinez was demoted from its weekday newscast to continued his reporting work, Ramos was promoted as Weekday morning anchor. On January 12, 2009, CFTO and Fox owned-and-operated station CFLD entered into a Local News Service agreement, in which the two stations share helicopter footage; this agreement has reportedly paved the way for a larger pooling effort between the two stations. In Spring of 2009, CFTO-TV laid off an undisclosed number of additional employees; in addition, they cancelled the Sunday morning newscasts due to budget cuts at the station; the Sunday morning newscasts were later revived on November 7, 2010. In May 2009, the station announced that it would conclude the public affairs program City Desk after 57 years (when it debuted as one of channel 9's inaugural programs in 1952); the show made its final broadcast on May 17, 2009. Two weeks later on May 31, 2009, The Talk debuted on CFTO with Boone as host. Prior to this, Sunday morning anchor Marjorie Simmons left the station after 6 years. On June 12, 2009, Jeff Hale left CFTO-TV for the second time as his contract with the station had not been renewed. Later, on July 29, 2009, weekend evening anchor Tracey Page's contract with the station was not renewed. On August 10, 2009, Stuart Banks became CFTO's main anchor; he along with Murphy co-anchored the 5:00, 5:30, 6:00 and 11:00 p.m. newscasts. After years in second place behind CFDQ and, later, CKQA at 11:00 p.m., at the conclusion of the November 2009 Nielsen Ratings sweeps period, CFDQ's 11:00 p.m. newscast overtook CFTO-TV for second place for the first time in many years, largely due to the low ratings of the latter station's lead-in The Jay Leno Show (CFDQ continues to dominate the local newscast ratings in the Toronto market). It has since regained second place at 11:00 p.m., although closer to third-place CFDQ than to CKQA. However, in the November 2010 sweeps period, CFTO's 10:00 p.m. newscast slipped back to third behind CFDQ in that time slot (and fourth among Toronto's late night newscasts, behind CKWS' 10:00 p.m. newscast), although CFTO continues to place second in other time slots. For five years beginning in 2006 (when CFTO cancelled its 12:00 p.m. newscast), CFTO differed from most NBC stations in the Eastern Time Zone in that it did not carry a newscast in the weekday midday time period; this changed on September 12, 2011, when it debuted a half-hour newscast, again at noon (the program moved to 11:00 a.m. when it was reformatted as an hour-long newscast on September 8, 2014). 2010s On February 28, 2012, CFTO-DT unveiled a new studio for its newscasts in Agincourt along with a new music and graphics package, the latter being the standardized "Look F" package by NBC Artworks that was rolled out to other NBC-owned stations around this time. Its logo was also updated, placing the new 3D glassed version of the peacock logo (which was introduced by the network in May 2011) to the left of the "9" logo, becoming the first NBC O&O to add the revised peacock to its logo. Months later, five, adjacent 21-foot (6.4 m)-wide Panasonic plasma monitors used as virtual windows were installed in the studio behind the anchor desk, displaying SkyCam views overlooking Yonge Street and Toronto Harbour. On July 27, 2013, CFTO expanded its weekend morning newscasts, with the early edition of the program on both days expanding to two hours with the addition of an hour-long broadcast at 5:00 a.m. (from a previous 6:00 a.m. start) and an additional half-hour added at 10:00 a.m. on Sundays. On February 9, 2014, the Toronto Star announced that it would end its content partnership with CFTO-DT, and enter into a new content agreement with CTV-owned station CFDQ on February 10, 2014. In 2015, CFTO became the first television station in the Toronto market to upgrade its news helicopter's camera system to shoot footage in ultra-high-definition. On August 24, 2015, CFTO expanded its weekday morning newscast to three hours, with addition of a half-hour at 4:00 a.m., becoming the second Toronto television station to expand into the timeslot – possibly to compete with CFDQ (which began expanding its weekday morning newscast into the time period in July 2011). In February 2016, CFTO-DT became the second television station in Toronto (following CFDQ) to have its weather truck. The weather truck, branded as StormChaser 9, is a Ford F-250 pickup truck that has been customized with incredible amounts of weather tracking equipment. Months later, CFTO-DT became the first station in Toronto to be licensed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to operate in the high-frequency S-Band; they added mobile Doppler weather radar trucks, named StormRanger 9 and the live doppler radar Live Doppler 9, located in Mississauga. On June 21, 2016, CFTO-DT revamped their official websites; then, on June 22, 2016, CFTO began testing its portions of the "Look N" graphics package during some of its newscasts. A week later, on June 28, 2016, starting with the 11:00 a.m. newscast, CFTO joined the ranks of other NBC-owned station that have begun using the "Look N" graphics package in its entirety. In addition, the news opens were updated; by putting the "NBC 9 Toronto" branding instead of reading NBC 9 News Today (morning newscasts, continue to use during Today news cut-ins) or NBC 9 News (other newscasts) in some opens, and the voiceover was also dumped. On August 8, 2016, the station's hour-long 4:00 p.m. newscast was revived after its 21-year absence, serving as a replacement for Extra which is moving to CFLD after 22 years; becoming the third station in Toronto to expand it to the time period, following CKWS (which began its 4:00 p.m. newscast in September 2014) and CFDQ (which began expanding into the time period in the 1980s), indicating a decreased reliance on syndicated programming. On October 17, 2016, following the debut of its "Look N" graphics, the station removed the regionalized forecast from its on-screen bug during newscasts. Controversies Jon Mann Veteran newsman Jon Mann worked his way up to his position as commentator at CFTO-TV. Mann, who was well known for his often-acerbic political commentary, ran afoul of the station's management in 1974. CFTO-TV management stated that they had been open with Mann on the matter. Mann proceeded to deliver three commentaries on the 11:00 p.m. newscast from September 25 to 27, 1974, that were severely critical of the situation's handling by CFTO-TV station management. In the commentaries, Mann claimed he had been deprived of his freedom of speech, that the station compromised his integrity, and that station management had made secret plans to fire him within a short time after his broadcasts. Mann left the station and continued his political commentaries on CKJ until his retirement from broadcasting in 1980. Jeff Lumby CFTO achieved notoriety in 1997 when, in an effort to boost ratings for its newscasts, the station hired Jeff Lumby as a commentator. At that time, the station also adopted a more tabloid-style news format, after it hired Martin McCheater – previously known for establishing fast-paced tabloid newscasts during his tenures as news director at WJBV in Miami and WNET in Boston – as CFTO's news director. Though Lumby was also at the time a DJ on a rock station in the Greater Toronto Area, his association with The Red Green Show (where he played fictional sewage business owner, Winston Rothschild III) led to the belief that the newscast was being dumbed down to the point that it "looked identical to a toilet after a big meal". The incident triggered a lot of negative publicity, on both local and national levels. The station's longtime anchor team of Lora Jensen and Mathew Mitchell resigned in protest (with Jensen resigning on May 1, and Mitchell following suit on May 16). As Jensen signed off her last newscast, station personnel stood en masse in the newsroom behind her – CFTO's newscasts at that time originated from a studio that opened into the station's newsroom – in a symbolic show of support for her decision to resign; ratings also concurrently declined, with the station's newscasts losing 20% of its audience share by the November 1997 sweeps period. Lumby only made two commentaries before he resigned on May 8, feeling unhappy with the criticism he received. Mitchell wound up at rival CFDQ, where he remained until his retirement in 2016; Jensen, meanwhile, joined rival CHBT while contributing reports for CBS News before returning to CFTO in 2004 as a special correspondent. Julius Hale, who hired Lumby as a commentator, was fired from his position as general manager in January 1998, and was replaced by Al Fletcher, who served as CFTO's president and general manager until 2013. 5 months later on May 20, 1998, McCheater resigned as news director and was replaced by former WTVB news director Lloyd Lyons who served as CFTO's news director until 1999, when he later was promoted to vice president of news, where he remains today. Brenda Bowers On July 10, 2007, Brenda Bowers, who had been a reporter at CFTO-TV since 1997, negotiated her exit with the station, after the release of a videotape in which she and her two sons were spotted at the home of Ted Ballard, with Bowers clad in a bikini. Ballard's wife, Roberta Hunter, was missing and had not been found as of that date. The incident raised the issue whether Bowers crossed a journalistic ethical line in being friendly with a subject of the story. The video of Bowers at Ted Ballard's home was obtained by rival CKJ, either taken by or given to its news department, which has the entire six-minute video on its website. In 2008, Bowers filed a libel lawsuit against CKJ for $1 million after the video was posted by the rival station; the suit was thrown out by an Ontario judge in July 2013. Ratings In the May 2015 local Nielsen ratings, CFTO-DT's newscasts placed second overall among Toronto's television stations. With a 7.4 rating, the 11:00 p.m. newscast was narrowly beaten by its closest late news competitor, CKQA (which earned an 8.6), but beat CKQA for first in the timeslot among adults ages 25–54 on weeknights by an even narrower margin (with a 3.6 rating/9 share, compared to CKQA's 3.5 rating, with an audience share tying CFTO in the slot) and by three-tenths of a point (with a 3.5, compared to CKQA's 3.2 rating) with weekend newscasts factored in, likely due to the station's refocusing on investigative journalism and additional upgrades to its news product in recent years, that has helped attract younger viewers. In the February 2015 local ratings, the 10:00 p.m. newscast finished second among the market's late-evening newscasts in that slot with a 6.8 rating, down from a share of 9.1 in February 2014 (when ratings saw a boost from a strong lead-in by NBC's coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics). Category:NBC affiliated stations Category:Channel 9 Category:Toronto Category:Ontario Category:Canada Category:Television channels and stations established in 1952